Toyama's two home games tell two different stories, and the second one has an easy explanation. They beat a heavily favoured Utsunomiya in the opener, then lost by 22 the next day after Amir Simms picked up his fifth foul in the third quarter with the game still close. Kyoto, on the other hand, have played all four of their games at home so far, and this is their first trip away.
In the opener, Toyama shot 29 of 54, came up with 13 steals and held Utsunomiya to 9 of 40 from three. That is a team that likes to run and pressure the ball, and it works best in front of its own crowd. Simms scored 16 in about 22 minutes in the rematch before fouling out, and a foul-out is not a suspension, so he is there again.
Kyoto's 3-1 start looks good on paper, but the wins came against sides the market had as underdogs, including a one-point squeaker and a 77-81 home loss to Shiga as the clear favourite. They shoot 27% from three and 66% from the line, so a lot of their scoring has to come inside, which is harder to count on away from home.
Toyama's coach said after the second game that defensive rebounding is the thing to fix before facing Kyoto, and he wanted more from his Japanese players, who had no double-figure scorer in either game. That reads like a team that knows exactly what went wrong, and I like that in a home game.
